Thoughts on Telecommuting

I've been pondering why it is that working from home typically inspires me to work harder then I do when I'm in the office. As I see it, there’s two factors at work here:

1. Since I’m not as tied to the clock as I am at work, I’m more motivated to get my work done early so I start doing personal things
2. There’s a fear involved that if you’re not producing or always available, your co-workers will think you’re at home watching TV in your underwear.

I’m being a tad glib with that last point but I did have a boss in an older job that seriously thought that no one ever did any work when they were at home, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In fact, at the time I was taking the train into Boston, which ate ~2:30 out of my day, so working from home not only gave me more personal time, but also mean that I had more time to devote to my work projects as opposed to traveling.
In my current situation, my lack of inspiration at work isn’t helped by the fact that I’m surrounded by people that hold relatively loud conversations with each other, making me wear my headphones 80% of the time just so I can concentrate. Another part of the appeal of working on the home couch is the absolute quiet.